Achel 8 Bruin

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappistenabdij De Achelse Kluis
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Hamont-Achel, Belgium

Poured 100% head. Foamy like crazy, head finally collapsed into a clumpy mess. Color is a hazy brown-red. Lager-like aroma with alcohol. Flavor not a lot different. Mouthfeel is all fizz. Disappointing. Probably a bad bottle.

Bottle 33cl. Aged this bottle for almost 2 years before drinking it. Pours a dark brown/reddish colour with a good size head and little carbonation. Smell is very fruity and present. Very fresh and fruity aroma that is very present and pleasant, excellent subtleness to the nose. Taste is absolutely magical, I would almost dare say that this tops the westy 12, has a lovely sweet and bitter fresh fruity taste to it and has a nice mouthfilling texture and goes down like a charm and leaves just the most gentle bit of alcohol burn in your throat, but just the right amount to not cause you to experience this as pain. Besides from the appearance, overall I would really rate this beer better than a westy 12 and rochefort 10, this is much much better than I was expecting and I recommend to everyone to age this a couple years (mine was baught in the summer of 2007). My bottle was, according to the label, valid until the 23rd of March of 2009, so a couple months overdate, but WOW.

Thanks to Phil l and Beer Merchants for this one--cheers mate! (This is a very belated add of this rating. Some got lost in the move and just finding and adding them now, months later.) Shiny brown, lots of old fashioned shaving-foam light tan head. Woody cinnamon aroma surrounded with a nice creamy quality. Bright mouth-filling carbonation, resiny caramel sweetness with an interesting mineral edge. This is an interesting one: it doesn’t inspire an avalanche of adjectives. And yet, it is disappearing from my glass in an alarmingly fast way. Solid as can be.

This fresh and fruity beer is really fantastic. It really stimulates my tong and gives me a lovely feeling in my tummy. The best beer I ever drunk!

Colore ambrato scuro,schiuma bianca spessa e spumosa.Aroma di malto,caramello,mela.Il sapore è un pò acido,zuccherino e caramellato con note di lievito,malto.Finale non lungo.Ottima.

Bottle. Dark brown orange with a thick foamy off-white head. Great retention and good lacing. Aroma is aple, candi malt, spices, honey and yeast. Flavor is more sour than expected, with sugar, raisins, apple, candi, spices, yeast and malt. Medium body.

Poured dark hazy amber, yeasty, malty, spice, caramel, little dark fruits, little citrus.

Very deep red in colour with an absolutely Everest sized light tan head that I carefully hand-crafted till it was just over and inch above the rim of my glass. There was also a pretty good ammount of sediment that got dumped into the glass with some of it getting trapped inside the cap itself. Smells of celery salt (odd), lots of stiff yeast (not overpowering), cherries, soft warm spice and maybe a hint of orange. Very fresh, soft and crisp. There’s lots of aroma but it’s not overpowering. Every sip brought out the full force of the aroma. The smell of the spicy hops and alcohol come out after it’s warmer. Sweet and bitter taste with sour cherry notes, plum, flavourless yeast and seems to come out on the watered down side (dissapointing). Smooth mouthfeel albeit slighty watery. Early on the alcohol has a really great and enjoyable burn when colder, when warmer, it just appears smooth. Starts off great but dwindles in enjoyment. Still totally drinkable and I’ll drink more cause it’s readily available.